I found another good paper by Collias et.al. about the reproductive success (or otherwise) of descendants of a flock of 37 RJF living wild within a Californian zoo since 1942 (so relatively easy to observe), followed for 7 years. The same researchers have observed RFJ in the wild in India and assert that the behaviour and social structure of the birds were essentially the same, bar the degree of dispersion over space.
Abstract: "The evolutionary success of individuals must ultimately be evaluated in terms of their lifetime contribution of mature young to the breeding population. The greater lifetime breeding success of the more dominant hens in an unconfined flock of Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) gave crucial evidence why female dominance hierarchies have evolved in this species. The number of chicks reared to independence by 28 hens of one flock from 1982 to 1988 was significantly associated with a hen's dominance, life-span, and year of hatching... The top 3 hens in the peck order added more offspring of breeding age to the population than did the remaining 25 adult hens of the flock. Eleven of the 28 hens reared no young successfully."
Fwiw, the statistics for my flock building to about the same size over the same time frame would not mirror this, but my flock get fed, and a lot of the survival rate for those RJF is probably explained by their access, or not, to adequate nutrition; a low position in the pecking order can be fatal where all food has to be foraged.
On broodies and their offspring, this para is particularly interesting I think: "We compared the dominance status of 20 Red Junglefowl hens in the central flock with the dominance status of their mothers. There was no significant correlation (r = 0.09). However, the different generations were intermingled as they occurred naturally. Most hens were daughters or granddaughters of the three top hens in the flock. [
So obviously those offspring were not driven off] The more senior hens of the older age classes tended to dominate hens of younger generations regardless of relationship. Figure 3 shows the yearling descendants of the three top hens. These three hens and some of their yearling offspring comprised two-thirds (6 males and 6 females) of the 18 emigrants from the central flock roost to other flock roosts from 1982 to 1988 [
so some 18 birds left this flock to join a different flock within the zoo]."
There was no further discussion of why and how some birds left the flock being studied and joined one of the other feral RJF flocks within the zoo.
But I did think it interesting that daughters did not inherit the status of their mothers. That older mothers were much more successful broodies than younger ones fits with Shad's experience/ instincts/ reading, and it's what I've done for the past few years. But as I let youngsters brood this year - even 1 who was still a pullet when they hatched - and they've done relatively well, my jury is still out on that one. My oldest hen has only 1 surviving daughter, who has no offspring, but her son is the current dom, so her genes are being passed on widely through him.
Open access, so if you want to read it all, it's here
https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/111/4/863/5168263
Thank you for sharing, though. This is helpful to hear.
